Originally Posted by
cyccommute
The rear brake is highly useful but you have to know how to use it. Most people don’t. On hard stops, shifting your body weight rearward 3-4” and dropping down 2-3” will increase deceleration significantly (almost double) and reduces the chances of skidding. On the plus side, you decelerate faster and will more control.
If you don’t want to shift weight rearward and downward, then ease up pressure on the front brake and add more pressure on the rear brake. You’ll reduce deceleration (slightly) but you’ll brake under more control and not ruin tires.
I don't know if we have the same definition of hard stops here. At 40+mph down a 10% grade, if you're trying to bleed off speed before a corner in less than second, sliding back and getting low is a prerequisite to not crashing. I find that the rear brake is far more useful as a heat dump (ie prolonged braking) since I want to conserve my front brake for harder stops. On steep hills, I can't honestly say that the rear brake is incredibly useful for hard braking. I've tried to stop on a 5 or 6% hill with one hand at walking pace (rear only) and it was almost impossible (I started skidding).
If I have to stop really hard even on a flat, I think the optimal braking technique is to just barely have the rear wheel touching (so as to use the adhesive grip of the rear tire), get as low and back as possible, but still heavily rely on the front.
My issue here is that if a large percentage of your braking force is coming from the rear, I can almost guarantee you that you are not stopping as hard as you could. And if the primary concern here is conserving rear tires, then I think my suggestion is pretty valid, even if one does not believe the above statement.